Philadelphia Bulletin

Philadelphia Bulletin appears in the book as a newspaper that helped shape the public image of Frank Sheeran at two consequential moments: first, as a reputedly violent man under suspicion in Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance, and later as a defendant acquitted by a jury in his RICO case. Its headlines, photographs, captions, and quoted sources made the contrast between suspicion and acquittal visible without resolving the disappearance itself.

The 1979 Profile

On February 18, 1979, seven months before Sheeran’s Philadelphia RICO indictment, Philadelphia Bulletin published a profile headlined “A Tough In Deep Trouble.” The story placed Sheeran’s reputation for violence at its center. A photograph of him carried the caption “History of Violence,” while the article described him as “a man noted for using his hands so well he did not need to carry a gun…a man so large police once found it impossible to handcuff his hands behind his back.” These details presented physical force as both a personal notoriety and a defining part of the public account of him.

The profile also connected Sheeran to Hoffa through its only other photograph: an image of the former Teamsters leader captioned “Close Ties to Sheeran.” The article emphasized that “the FBI considers Sheeran a suspect in Hoffa’s disappearance in 1975.” The juxtaposition did not establish Sheeran’s involvement; it put the closeness of the two men and the FBI’s suspicion in the same frame, making their association a central part of the profile’s presentation.

Drinking as Character Evidence

Alongside violence and the Hoffa connection, the profile foregrounded Sheeran’s drinking. An unidentified Philadelphia lawyer was quoted saying Sheeran never cared about the vintage of his wine: “It just had to come from a grape. I never saw such a big man so able to crawl into a bottle of wine. He drinks incessantly.” The anonymous source’s description turned a private habit into part of the portrait assembled for readers, linking the profile’s image of a physically imposing man to a reputation for continuous drinking.

Philadelphia Bulletin’s account is particularly specific about how its portrait was constructed: it paired a photograph and a terse caption with descriptions attributed to the article and an unnamed lawyer. A later New York Times profile, published on October 27, 1979, also presented Sheeran at a bar, with whiskey in front of him, and quoted his indebtedness to Hoffa. The two newspaper accounts differ in emphasis, but both made his attachment to Hoffa and his drinking legible through selected images and reported statements.

Acquittal and the Limits of the Headline

After Sheeran’s RICO trial, Philadelphia Bulletin announced the jury’s decision with the headline “Jury Acquits Sheeran on All Charges.” That headline offered a sharp counterpoint to the 1979 profile’s language of trouble and suspicion: the newspaper that had identified him as an FBI suspect now reported the jury’s acquittal. The distinction matters because the book separately recounts other offenses and a Delaware state conviction; the Bulletin headline concerns the jury’s verdict in the case being described, not a general resolution of every allegation or of Hoffa’s disappearance.

Taken together, the profile and the acquittal headline preserve two different stages in Sheeran’s public story. The first assembled a forceful image from reported reputation, an anonymous lawyer’s characterization, and the visible association with Hoffa. The second recorded a legal outcome. Neither headline closed the larger mystery: years later, Michigan District Attorney David Gorcyca described the case as resembling “a great ‘whodunit’ novel without the final chapter.”